Thiruvananthapuram | A day after the CPI in Kerala said the SFI will become a liability for the Left Front if it does not mend its ways, CPI(M) leader A K Balan on Friday said no one inside or outside the LDF would be permitted to destroy the student outfit.
Balan said that the Students Federation of India (SFI) was a movement created by the CPI(M) and it has grown over the years.
"We will not let anyone destroy it. What I said is meant for those inside and outside the Left front," he said.
Balan further said those who were not present in Kerala's political scene or India when the SFI was growing and when it was in crisis, "would not understand its history." He also said that if the intention was to project SFI as a rabid dog and beat it to death, the Kerala society will not permit it.
"Let me make it clear, no one will be allowed to drink the blood of SFI," Balan said.
His comments were apparently in response to CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam's remarks on Thursday when he strongly criticised the SFI, saying that if its ways were not corrected, it would become a liability for the Left front in the state.
Later on Friday, Viswam said that he too does not want anyone to "drink the blood of SFI" and that is why he had said that the student outfit should mend its ways.
Meanwhile, SFI state secretary P M Arsho said leaders like the CPI state secretary should not fall into the trap of propaganda by vested interests.
On Thursday, Viswam had said that the ways of the CPI(M)'s student wing "are not that of the Left student movement." "The SFI activists and comrades should read about the history of the student movement. They are not aware of their origins and what they stand for. The new SFI does not know the meaning of the term Left front. They do not know the depth of their political ideology.
"They also do not know about the obligations of the Left front in the new world. They have to be taught about all this. If they are not taught, if they are not corrected, SFI will become a liability for the Left front. That should not happen," he had said.
He was reportedly speaking with regard to the SFI's recent activities, including allegedly slapping a college principal and beating up a KSU leader in the University of Kerala campus, which have been in the news.
Viswam had also said that there are thousands of youngsters in the SFI and keeping them in mind also, the student outfit should be guided on to the right path.
"They (SFI) should be made the strength of the Left front. For that, they have to be made aware that the ways they have adopted now are not the right ones," the CPI state secretary had said.
